Take It Like A Man
by JustAGryffindork
Summary: Sam/Rachel. When Sam and Rachel are paired up for a Broadway themed Glee club assignment, and they decide on Take It Like A Man from Legally Blonde they become closer than ever.
1. Chapter 1

Sam hurried to the choir room with his bag slung over his shoulder, before taking the nearest seat he could find. Broadway, that was the project for glee club- put your name in the hat and then pick your partner, simple enough. When the assignment was revealed, Sam noticed Rachel smiling insanely like someone who belonged in a psychiatric ward. Sam walked to the hat, and buried his hand inside, pulled out the name and shook his head slightly as he read out the it out loud.

"Rachel" he said softly, shrugging his shoulders.

He had originally hoped to get Quinn as his partner, but he eventually came to the conclusion that if he worked with Rachel, he was bound to win for the week. Sam wandered back over to his seat moments later to grab his bag.

Rachel smiled as she looked over to Sam, she had never been paired with him before, but she had assessed the talent of each and every member of the Glee Club and knew with the right song, they could be brilliant. She then looked over to Finn, she had longed to be paired with him, but obviously fate had dealt her a different hand. After all the names were drawn and everyone was paired up. Rachel strided over to Sam and smiled as she held a bunch of sheet music in her hands.

"So Sam, I was thinking we could get together in the auditorium after school and discuss music ideas? Try out a few I picked up in the library maybe. I know with my talent at both stage performance and organization and your voice, we can win this week for sure.." She said giving a reassuring smile.

Sam stood for a second, processing everything she had said. He laughed slightly to himself, knowing that Rachel would probably end up doing most of the work, and he'd just have to stand at sing, which is what he considered to be a rather brilliant deal.

"So I suppose you've mentally decided on the song then?" he asked, with an obvious sarcastic tone in his voice.

"Well, I have indeed come up with a few selections." Rachel said quite confidently as she then looked around. "There's 'As Long As Your Mine' from Wicked or even 'Class' from Chicago or…" She smiled widely as she continued babbling on, which was understandable since whenever she had the opportunity to discuss Broadway songs she would take it.

"Rachel, shut up!" Sam interrupted, signing loudly with irritation. "I suppose we'll go with Class…I can't imagine we'd be good at love songs, so that's the safe option" he continued , laughing awkwardly.

Rachel looked at him, raising her right eyebrow slightly higher than her left in confusion. "Well, the only problem with Class is that I don't think Mr Schue would advocate swearing…" she replied, shrugging her shoulders as she looked at him.

"Well, I'm not particularly comfortable singing a love song with you, Rachel. I don't want people jumping to conclusions." Sam stated, looking down at her awkwardly.

"Fine. We'll do 'Take It Like A Man' from Legally Blonde. That's _generally _to do with friendship, and it's in the Broadway category. That way we both win" Rachel reasoned, nodding her head once.

Sam simply nodded along with her. He recognized the title, though the lyrics were entirely unknown to him. Sam wasn't really in the mood to argue over song choices, and it wasn't like it really mattered. Rachel walked briskly in the direction of the auditorium, and Sam sauntered along the corridor behind her.

"Yeah, you take your time then" Rachel joked, laughing slightly as she spoke. "Right, okay. Do you know the song at all?" she asked, handing him a copy of the music. She tended to keep things like that in her schoolbag, just incase they were ever needed.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I've heard it somewhere, but I'd be lying if I said I know the words." Sam replied, looking over the lyrics.

"I suppose we'll just have to wing it and see how it turns out. We'll fix the bad bits later rather than sooner." Rachel replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Though she had never been a blonde, she found the musical very inspirational. Rachel had always liked the idea of being able to do anything she set her mind to; she would make it on Broadway if it killed her. After Brad, the piano guy, played the introduction Rachel began:

"First a deep breath. take it all in. Feel all those halogens warming your skin, smell how they pump in pure oxygen. See they care. I know you're scared, nevertheless think of the people you want to impress. Swallow you're pride for me, just nod 'yes' and prepare. 'Cos something's in the air…" She sang, looking at Sam as she did so. Rachel had gotten into the habit of staring at people while singing, as she managed to convince herself at it made a better connection.

"Here you'll become what you're suppose to be, you think you can't but you can. Think of the guy you want most to be, here's your chance to make it. So take it like a man." Rachel finished, nodding her head as a prompt for Sam.

Sam tensed slightly, looking down at the lyrics in his hand and trying to guess the tune in the very little time that he had to think about it.

"What does she want? Not really sure. Why can't we leave things the way that they were? Why can I never say no to her?" he began singing, slightly off tune which was understandable considering that he didn't know the song. Sam looked at Rachel, almost as though he was looking for approval.

"That I don't like. That's kinda neat. Guys who wear that get beat up on my street. Still I've come this far, I can't retreat in my shell. I'm in the hands of Elle…What the hell!" Sam continued, getting into the song. It wasn't as bad as he originally expected.

They both sang the rest of the song, both respectively and together until it reached the end. Sam sighed in relief, laughing slightly afterwards.

"See, that wasn't too bad. You should probably look it up on you tube though, you were a little bit off" Rachel indicated, squinting her face. "…and maybe we could like hang out or something" she continued, glancing down at the floor as she spoke.

Sam looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "I'm free every night this week…except Monday, Wednesday and Friday because I've got football practice" he responded, making his way to the back of the auditorium.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then" Rachel called, watching him leave.

Rachel was rather glad that she had been partnered with Sam. It would be a whole lot better than she originally expected, or at least that's what she thought after their first rehearsal.

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><p><strong>Yeah, I think this fic is gonna be full SamRachel fluff (: Its my first Glee fanfic, so be nice. Constructive criticism would be good too though. If I get two reviews, I'll continue; If not, I won't.**


	2. Chapter 2

The very next morning at approximately 8:45, Sam made his way through the halls of McKinley High School, quite literally still half asleep. He muttered under his breathe, cursing quietly at the people blocking the path to his locker and blinking his eyes more than what was considered standard.

"Jeez, you look like you need a bucket of cold water thrown over you" Rachel stated, laughing slightly as she approached his locker.

"Nah, I'll be wide awake by third period. Seriously, every morning I vow to go to bed earlier but it never happens" Sam replied, though the end of his sentence was difficult to understand as it was muffled by a yawn.

"Well, I was hoping that we could rehearse again after school. No offence intended, but you really need the practice." She responded, shrugging her shoulders as if it were obvious.

"Oh yeah, I'm _so _offended. Alright, I'll see you later" He agreed, only to be interrupted by the registration bell and the almost instant congestion of the main corridor as the students fought their way through the their registration class.

The rest of the day went slowly. Extremely slowly. And having Math last period certainly didn't help anything. Rachel tapped her pen on the edge of the desk relentlessly, waiting for the dismissal bell to ring. When it eventually did, she sorted her books into her bag before making her way out of the class room in an attempt to spot Sam somewhere in the crowd of teenagers. After trying in vain to find him, she thought she'd be better off looking around the area of his locker. Just as she suspected, he was there.

"Auditorium?" Rachel asked him, though it didn't seem like much of a question.

"Alright." he replied, nodding his head once in confirmation before slamming his locker shut and walking alongside her to the auditorium.

"You looked the song up on YouTube, right?" She question as they reached the auditorium, looking up at Sam.

"Yeah, its pretty good for a show tune" Sam admitted, nodding his head as if in approval.

"_Pretty good? _Sam, you're blonde, don't you know what its like to be under-estimated?" Rachel tried, shaking her head as she stared at him, almost in disgust that he had the nerve to call a Broadway musical 'pretty good' rather than goddamn amazing.

Sam thought for a minute, trying to think of a half-decent answer to her question. He knew she was sort of right; no, in fact, she was utterly and completely right. Being dyslexic, people had continuously thought of him as slow or stupid and on top of that he was blonde, which only added to peoples misconception that he was an idiot.

"When you put it that way…" he responded after quite a while of thinking, shrugging his shoulders in defeat and not bothering to finish his sentence.

Rachel laughed along with him. "See, you know you love it" she replied, sounding unintentionally flirtatious.

"Why do you always have to be right?" Sam quoted sarcastically, laughing slightly as he did so.

The practiced the song umpteen times, until Rachel had decided on what parts needed the most sorting out. She had always acted as a taskmaster, and tended to be extremely strict when it came to music in general, never mind musical theatre.

"I think we just gotta fix the end and that should be it" Rachel judged, though she could tell by Sam's facial expression that he really could no longer be bothered. "C'mon, once more then we're done. I promise." She bargained, giving him a reassuring smile.

Nodding his head in understanding, before starting to sing the final few verses, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible, even though it was close to sounding half-hearted. "Not quite the guy I'd have choose to be, but when she's standing to close to me I think I like her plan."

"Here's you're chance to make it so, take it like a man!" they sang in unison, finishing the song. Sam noticed that somehow they had ended up standing rather close to one another. He had no idea how it happened, but he refrained from saying anything.

Rachel smiled at him, nodding her head a few times. She leaned in towards Sam awkwardly, unsure whether she'd regret it or not. To her disappointment, Sam moved away from her with an obviously confused look on his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked, although he was sure that the answer was already rather obvious.

Rachel just stared at the floor, feeling uncommonly embarrassed. "Doesn't matter…" she answered, seemingly examining the floor.

"Look Rachel, think of it this way. I'm Marius, Quinn's Cosette, and you're Eponine…I'm better off with her than I am with you" Sam said, trying to turn the situation into something that she would probably have a better grasp of, yet immediately regretting his badly thought out words.

"Ah, Les Mis… You know what, you're right. It was stupid... bye." She responded, speaking too quickly to be properly understood and forcing a smile.

That made Sam feel more horrible than he could ever remember feeling. He wanted to kiss her; he really did. But he was still in pursuit of Quinn, and that would just confuse him. As Rachel tried to walk past him, he stopped her abruptly and pulled her into his arms and pressing his lips against hers in a split second, much to her surprise. After a moment or thereabouts, they pulled away. Rachel smiled sheepishly at him, and Sam simply laughed awkwardly.

"Um, well. I gotta go. I'll see you soon?" Sam broke the silence.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow" Rachel replied, grinning widely at him.

Sam kissed her lightly on the cheek, before exiting the auditorium, not quite able to believe what had just happened.

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><p><strong>Chapter two the day after I posted Chapter 1, that's gotta be a new record for me! Haha (:<strong>

**I hope you guys liked the chapter.**

**Thanks to the people who reviewed, you're legends.**

**2 reviews for this chapter and I'll continue, that's what I call tough love.**


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